Earlier—
It felt as though Zhe's consciousness had been spat back out by an abyss. He shot upright in bed, gasping violently, his chest feeling as though it had been struck by a hammer. The loose strands of hair on his forehead were already soaked with cold sweat.
The final images from the dream were still burning in his mind—
Nicole's despairing eyes, the Nightmare's hideous form.
They were seared into his soul like red-hot brands.
[It appears the situation is critical.]
A voice as cold as a machine sounded from the corner of the room.
"Who's there?!"
Zhe instantly dropped into a fighting stance. Only then did he see that Zero had somehow already been standing in the shadows, its metal shell gleaming ominously beneath the blood-colored moonlight filtering in through the window.
"Big brother! What's wrong?!"
Rin shoved the door open in a panic, but the instant she saw Zero, she immediately took a defensive posture.
"What is that thing?"
Suppressing the turmoil inside him, Zhe quickly explained Zero's identity to her. But when he reached Nicole's situation, his voice sped up involuntarily.
"Nicole's trapped inside her own dream. The Nightmare is invading her mind..."
He told Rin everything he had seen in the dream without holding anything back:
the Gate of the Mind swallowed in darkness, Nicole gradually being devoured, the desperate cries of the trapped children.
[The Gate of the Mind has already fallen.]
For the first time, Zero's mechanical voice carried a grave weight unlike before.
[The collapse of the real world has entered its countdown.]
As if to prove those words true, the television screen suddenly cut to an emergency news bulletin.
There, beneath a blood-red moon, a violet barrier arched over the entire city like a dome. Sinister dream-butterflies swarmed through the streets.
[If we do not act immediately, this world will splinter apart under the Nightmare's侵蚀.]
A chill ran up Zhe's spine, and his fingers clenched unconsciously.
The fate of the world—
something that had once existed only in spy movies—
was now pressing down on his shoulders with crushing weight.
Then he noticed that beside him, Rin was staring fixedly at the screen, her slender fingers gripping the hem of her clothes so tightly they trembled. Her thin body was shaking just slightly.
In an instant, memory surged through him like a tide—
Nicole kneeling before the grave, her back trembling;
the warmth-hungry look in her eyes the first time she came to the video store;
the helpless cries of the children trapped in the dream...
"That's enough!"
Zhe's eyes snapped open.
In that moment, every hesitation, every fear, burned away completely.
His gaze turned sharp as a blade, and his voice rang out with unshakable resolve:
"I'm sorry, Rin. I have to fight. Nicole is still waiting for me."
"Wait! Big brother!"
Rin grabbed his arm with both hands, her fingertips whitening with the force of her grip.
"You can't go! It's too dangerous! I... I don't want to lose you. You're my only... family!"
Zhe turned and took hold of his sister's trembling hands, giving her a smile that somehow made everything feel safe.
"Trust me."
His voice was steady as stone.
"Because I have to protect the people most important to me—"
His eyes softened as he looked at the tearful Rin before him.
"And because there's someone drowning in despair who needs help—"
Nicole's tear-filled eyes flashed through his mind.
"And because there is still too much in this world worth protecting—"
He looked out through the window at the sky stained crimson.
"The movies we promised we'd watch together, that milk tea shop you love so much, the smiles on the faces of everyone we know... I swear I will never let all of it be swallowed by nightmares!"
Under Rin's stunned gaze, Zhe decisively pulled out the ZZZ Driver and fastened it to his chest.
The instant the Impact Capsule clicked into place, a blazing crimson light erupted from the Driver's core, roaring like a dragon awakened.
"Transform!"
He slammed the activation switch and swept the capsule across.
A torrent of blood-red energy poured out from the Driver like a living flood, coiling around his body. Nanoparticles condensed in the air at breathtaking speed. The chest armor formed first with an earthshaking metallic clang. Armored gauntlets and greaves followed, sealing into place while the sounds of vein-like structures attaching at the joints thundered through the room.
Countless energy lines interwove around his head, finally solidifying into a sharply contoured helmet. At the moment the compound eyes formed, they blazed to life in searing red.
[Good morning! Rider! Ze Ze Zeztz! Impact!]
The rousing announcement filled the room.
When the final note dropped, Kamen Rider ZZZ stood there in full glory, radiating a power that made the air itself tremble.
Rin stared at her fully transformed brother in silence.
Only now did she truly understand—
the one standing before her was no longer merely the brother who joked and bickered with her every day.
He was also a hero who had to fight for this world.
"You have to come back," Rin said, her voice choked but firm. "Bring Nicole back too. I'll stay here and wait for both of you."
"In the name of ZZZ, I swear I'll come back."
At the rear exit, the mechanical body of the Code Zero-Eroder reconfigured amid a deafening storm of transformation sounds, rebuilding itself into a sleek combat bike.
ZZZ swung onto the machine in one smooth motion. The moment his hands touched the handlebars, he could feel the power raging through the engine.
"Mission begins now!"
The bike tore through the night like a crimson meteor, carrying the Rider who had resolved to save the world toward the battlefield beneath the blood-red sky.
Rin stood in the doorway for a long time, watching her brother vanish into the distance, her hands clasped tightly before her chest.
Under the night sky of New Eridu, a streak of red cut through the darkness.
It was the light of hope.
It was the light of dawn.
And now, back to the present—
On Central Avenue in New Eridu, beneath the blood-red heavens—
Boom—!
Kamen Rider ZZZ—in PHYSICAM TRANSFORM form—drove a red iron fist through the air like a falling star, blasting the third Nightmare duplicate into fragments!
Blazing red energy patterns pulsed wildly across his streamlined armor, like magma surging through veins.
"Too slow! Too slow! Far too slow!"
A mocking laugh rang out from beneath the mask.
Then, in a single instant, ZZZ's right arm shot forward like a furious dragon. As it extended, the limb violently transformed and reassembled, becoming a gigantic hammer wreathed in crackling red arcs of electricity, sweeping out with enough force to split heaven and earth.
Rrrrrumble—!
The two duplicates that had just rushed in from the flanks did not even have time to scream before the hammer smashed them into nothing, leaving behind only a few fading streaks of purple-black energy in the air.
The true Cunning Hare Nightmare let out a shriek so piercing it seemed ready to split eardrums. Its claws tore through the air, slashing in from all directions at once with countless afterimages.
But Zhe only threw his arms wide with a wild grin.
In one-thousandth of a second, his left arm unfolded into a gigantic honeycomb-like shield coated in red energy.
CLANG—!!!
The apocalyptic collision shattered every pane of glass along the street in an instant.
Ripples of burning energy spread across the shield's surface, absorbing the world-breaking impact entirely.
"Is that all you've got?!"
ZZZ roared.
The gigantic shield instantly transformed and reassembled, becoming a storm of razor-sharp crimson steel needles.
"Now it's my turn!"
The needles poured out like a red hurricane, each one shrieking through the air with force enough to rip through space.
The Nightmare's true body retreated in panic, only to discover that the needles were curving midair in unnatural arcs, like a swarm of bloodthirsty bees lunging in from impossible angles.
"Skreeeaaah—!"
Hundreds of holes burst open across the Nightmare's body in an instant, and purple-black energy sprayed out like blood.
"I'm not done yet!"
ZZZ smashed his fists together, sending brilliant sparks flying. In the moment of impact, both arms elongated and transformed, turning into two long crimson thorn-whips.
"Have a taste of the whip!"
The twin whips lashed out like two crazed red dragons, weaving a net of death across the entire street.
Every swing produced a sonic boom. Wherever they passed, concrete turned to dust and steel rebar twisted like paper.
Under the merciless fury of the crimson whips, the Nightmare's duplicates exploded one after another, never even getting the chance to think about reforming.
"You damned... damned Rider!"
The Cunning Hare Nightmare's voice warped with pure rage.
"If that's how it is... then all of you, come back to me!"
Every remaining duplicate came surging back into the true body like rabid hounds. Purple-black energy spiraled out of control.
The Nightmare's form swelled and distorted wildly inside that energy storm, until at last it became a colossal rabbit-shaped Nightmare taller than a five-story building.
Every step it took split the earth into bottomless fissures.
Its blood-red eyes were like twin crimson moons that had fallen into the mortal world.
"Now that's more like it."
ZZZ laughed softly.
The energy cores in his legs began to overload, bursting with brilliant light.
"Then... I guess it's time to enter the climax."
ZZZ's figure vanished instantly, leaving behind only a sonic boom cloud.
In the next instant he was already in front of the colossal Nightmare, both arms transforming at impossible speed as he charged—
His right arm became a gigantic drill over ten meters long, its point spinning so fast it seemed to tear space itself.
His left arm transformed into a monstrous warhammer covered in spikes, its striking face pulsing with destructive red light.
The drill hit first, slamming into the Nightmare's chest and setting off a continuous storm of sparks and explosions.
The warhammer followed immediately after, crashing toward the creature's skull with mountain-shattering force.
"ROOOAAARGH—!"
The colossal Nightmare screamed in pain and swung a giant claw down with heaven-crushing force, trying to swat away this tiny, hateful enemy.
But ZZZ had already used the recoil to launch himself into the air.
He planted both feet against the wall of a skyscraper and kicked off hard, rebounding back at supersonic speed.
Then he hammered the Driver three times in rapid succession.
The energy lines running across his body flared to life like a supernova.
[Transform Vanish! Ze! Ze! Zeztz!!!]
This time, both arms merged into one—
forming a colossal energy warhammer over thirty meters in diameter.
Its surface crawled with red lightning fierce enough to destroy worlds, and its very existence caused the surrounding space to distort.
"This ends now!"
The warhammer descended with the force of final judgment, striking the Nightmare's core dead-on.
Time itself seemed to freeze for one instant.
Then came an explosion like the splitting open of heaven and earth—
BOOOOOOOOOOM————————!!!!
The colossal Nightmare disintegrated inside the torrent of red energy, shattering apart with a miserable scream into countless drifting particles of light.
As the last trace of purple-black mist vanished, a crystal-like purple dream-butterfly fluttered out from the center of the blast.
With every beat of its wings, the blood-red sky began to fade.
The purple barrier cracked and shattered piece by piece.
Blue heavens returned.
ZZZ descended slowly to the ground, his armor gleaming beneath the sunlight with the radiance of victory.
In a low voice, he said:
"The mission is complete."
At the far end of the street, Zhu Yuan stared at the utterly reshaped terrain and the crimson Rider standing proudly in the middle of it all. Her voice trembled without her meaning it to.
"W-What... what the hell is that guy?"
Qingyi's terminal was shrieking with overload alarms, and for once even her eyes showed unmistakable shock.
"The energy reading from that last strike... exceeded the upper measurement limit of the instrument."
But Zhe only bent down and gently lifted Nicole into a princess carry.
Looking at her peaceful sleeping face, he whispered softly beneath the mask:
"Welcome back."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 119)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter79)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter125)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 73
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 55
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 66
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 63
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 55
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 31
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 31
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 31
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin